William Brewster

William Brewster (1566-10 April 1644) was the senior elder and leader of the English Pilgrims who settled in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.

Biography
William Brewster was born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England in 1566, and he worked as postmaster of Scrooby. He was a member of the Puritan Separatists, and he fled to Leiden, Holland with the other Pilgrims in 1607 before sailing to North America in 1620. Brewster was the Pilgrims' senior elder and leader, and he was one of the masterminds behind the foundation of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims travelled to the New World aboard the Mayflower, and Brewster was the spiritual leader of the Pilgrims before becoming a senior adviser to Governor William Bradford. He was granted land amongst the island of Boston Harbor, and he lost two daughters to the 1634 smallpox and influenza pandemic. He died in Duxbury in 1644.